Hamas' top political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a predawn bombing in the Iranian capital on Wednesday, Iran and the Palestinian group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that might spark an all-out regional war. Iran's top leader promised revenge against Israel.
Israel has a lengthy history of assassinating rivals abroad, including Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders.
Israel, which remained silent on the hit, had pledged to kill Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas officials in response to the group's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which sparked the war on Gaza. The attack came shortly after Haniyeh attended Iran's new president's inauguration in Tehran, and hours after Israel targeted a major commander of Iran's ally Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon.
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Killed In Tehran | Top Updates
Iran’s Leader Orders Attack On Israel: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order, The New York Times reported. In a statement on his official website, Khamenei said revenge was “our duty” and that Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear guest in our home.”
Fears Of Retaliation From Iran: The assassination is potentially explosive amid the region's volatile, intertwined conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in Iran. Most dangerous is the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates. Bitter regional rivals, Israel and Iran risked plunging into war earlier this year when Israel hit Iran's embassy in Damascus in April. Iran retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other's soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle before it spun out of control.
Hezbollah Top Commander Killed In Israeli Attack: The assassination could also inflame already rising tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which international diplomats were trying to contain after a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel carried out a strike Tuesday evening in the Lebanese capital that it said killed a top Hezbollah commander allegedly behind the rocket strike. Hezbollah has denied any involvement. The group confirmed on Wednesday that senior military commander Fuad Shukr had been killed.
‘We Are Prepared For Any Scenario’, Says Netanyahu: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had delivered “crushing blows” to its enemies in recent days, including the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon hours before the Tehran strike. He warned Israelis that “challenging days lie ahead”, as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East grow. "Since the strike in Beirut there are threats surrounding from all directions," he told a televised address. "We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand united and determined against any threat."
Khaled Mashaal Tipped To Be New Hamas leader: Khaled Meshaal is tipped to be the new Hamas leader, Reuters reported. Meshaal, 68, has been a key figure in the Islamist group since becoming its political leader in exile in 1996. His tenure has seen him represent Hamas in meetings with foreign governments worldwide, despite Israeli travel restrictions. He became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman. The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis, with Jordan's King Hussein threatening to scrap the country's peace treaty with Israel unless the antidote was provided and Israel did so.
